Opponents of same-sex marriage in California launched another attempt Friday to stop the weddings that started three weeks ago, filing a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court in the name of a county clerk. The suit challenges Gov. Jerry Brown's order to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

Like the sponsors of Proposition 8, who unsuccessfully asked the same court last week for an emergency order enforcing the 2008 ban on same-sex marriages, San Diego County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg argued that neither Brown nor the federal judge who declared Prop. 8 unconstitutional in 2010 have authority over local clerks' issuance of marriage licenses.

But unlike Prop. 8's proponents, whose inability to show that they have any personal rights at stake in the marriage dispute has hamstrung their legal efforts, Dronenburg said he has something important at stake - his ability to do his job and follow the law.

Dronenburg is "caught in the crossfire of a legal struggle over the definition of marriage," his lawyers said - he believes Prop. 8 is still the law, but, like other county clerks, has been warned by Attorney General Kamala Harris that he faces contempt of court if he refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In the suit filed last week by Prop. 8's sponsors, the justices unanimously refused to halt same-sex marriages and are still considering whether to take up their request to rule on the measure's enforceability.

Brown issued his order to all 58 county clerks on June 28, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Prop. 8's sponsors lacked legal standing to represent the state and its voters in defending the measure in federal court after Brown and Harris declined to do so. The ruling revived Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's August 2010 decision that struck down Prop. 8 and prohibited state officials, or anyone under their control, from enforcing it.